


John Connor Saved Us All

by Ishyko



Category: Terminator Salvation (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 20:05:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ishyko/pseuds/Ishyko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Bucketmouse Yuletide 2012. I still need to go back and edit and post the insane flow chart I tried to work out in plotting this story. I messed with the timeline to suit my needs but did try very hard to stick to the movie plots as well as T:SCCC.</p>
    </blockquote>





	John Connor Saved Us All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bucketmouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bucketmouse/gifts).



> For Bucketmouse Yuletide 2012. I still need to go back and edit and post the insane flow chart I tried to work out in plotting this story. I messed with the timeline to suit my needs but did try very hard to stick to the movie plots as well as T:SCCC.

History tells us it is the men who are the heroes. Their deeds are large, adventurous, and full of might. Greater research shows us that it is not only men but women too who have performed great feats and endured hardships and tests.

Legends, fairy tales, and stories tell us it is the small one, the everyday person who can affect the largest change and rise to the greatest of challenges.

\-------------------  
 _The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves._  
 _-Sarah Connor mantra_

 

_It’s cold. I’m terrified. We all are. I can see it in my mother’s eyes, feel it in her trembling touch. My father’s terror washes over all of us in his quiet, measured tones, the stiffness of his stance._

_And then my brother weather’s it all and bends with the demands. He seems touched so little by all that’s happened. He constantly makes us laugh. He’s hope and warmth, and so tough through it all. I didn’t realize how much strength I took from him until the day he and mom were captured by the metal._

_Losing mom was awful but losing my baby brother Kyle was unbearable._

_-as told to Sarah Connor by Derek Reese when she asks what the future was like_

 

Derek sat at the kitchen table with the gun cleaning kit and wondered at his bizarre domestic life. Cameron patrolled the perimeter of the house inside, Sarah and John were having a strangely lighthearted moment on the couch, Sarah having dissolved into giggles.

Derek paused, arrested by the unexpected sound. Sarah glanced up at him and their eyes locked. His stomach dropped and his breath caught.

Holy shit.

Derek bolted from his seat and out the front door. This was not good. He hopped into the driver’s seat of the jeep but then sat there, afraid to go back in the house for the keys. No one came after him.

Thirty minutes later he was still in the seat, his heart still racing.

\----------------------

_I wanted to scream at those generals, “Don’t you see? Don’t you morons realize you’re killing us all? John saved you! He fucking saved you and you’re throwing it away!”_   
_-excerpted from Kate’s Journals vol.1 chapter 4_

 

“Kate? Kate! Where are you?”  
Kate sighed and stepped out of supply closet 53B and walk towards John’s frantic calls.

“I’m over here John.”

John practically sprinted the length of the hall to get to her. He looked visibly shaken. “I couldn’t find you.”

“I was here.”

“Doing inventory.”

She shrugged.

“There’s binders full of inventory. You’ve checked it. You’ve made corrections. It’s accurate.” He raked a hand through his hair. It was long enough now to fall into his eyes. It made him look terribly young.

It made her fingers itch to touch him. She shoved her hands in her pockets.

He sighed. “Kate,” he began softly. “Why are you hiding from me?”

The hurt in his eyes was a blow to her chest. The words came out as a whisper. “Because your destiny is overwhelming,” she gave in and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “And because I am bound to you now by my choice,” she brushed her lips against his for the first time in months.

John’s response was all that she could have dreamed of and more.

\--------------------------------

_All Skynet knows how to do is win. There was this 80’s movie I loved. “Wargames”. It’s about a computer the military creates to help them fight and win global thermonuclear war. Only you can’t win. And the computer learns that._

_Skynet is the awful reality of that movie. I think someone should shoot that screenwriter. So now Skynet wants to win. I don’t think it even knows what it would do if it does win._

_For the love of one programming geek who could have taken a moment to read some Asimov and include some basic laws of robotics the human race might have been spared._

_Sometimes Sarah, John, and I have a morbid sense of humor._

_It disturbs me that Cameron’s working on one._

_-digital recording, Derek Connor, pre-J-Day (TD/time displacement)_

 

Derek wakes up in a cold sweat. But the sheets are soft and clean. He's alone in a wide bed. The window is cracked and he hears the nighttime sounds of crickets, frogs, and traffic.

He stumbles out of the bed and heads to the kitchen where he encounters Cameron.

"Bad dreams?" She asks not from concern but from a reasonable extrapolation of a variety of data points. 

Derek glares at her and opens the fridge, reaching for the jug of orange juice. He drinks it straight from the container. Like he did before. Like he'll never have orange juice again. Like-

"Try a glass Derek."

He chokes and juice goes down the front of his bare chest. "Son of a-" He's surprised at how guilty he feels for a second. Then he's aware of how Sarah is staring at his chest, her mouth parted slightly, eyes wide, and yes, the pulse at her pale throat is beating wildly.

The moment stretches on as he watches her eyes slide across his body and slowly up his neck to stop on his lips. The tip of her tongue starts to come out and Derek feels a surge of lust shoot through him that nearly sends him to his knees.

He slams the juice on the counter and heads back upstairs to take a shower. A long, cold, shower.

Goddamn Kyle for being the best of brothers.

Goddamn Connor for sending him back. It's like he knew Sarah was his kind of girl.

What a fucking trick to play on your uncle.

\--------------------

_He’s a criminal and yet I believe there is more to his story. I find him endlessly complex and fascinating._

_I refuse to let him know this._

_All of my research, my hopes, my plans…_

_I will be devastated if he does not sign the release form._

_And yet…I believe, somehow, he is already knows._

_-excerpted from “The Journals of Serena Kogan”_

 

“Shit, Marcus.”

Marcus slapped his younger brother in the back of the head. “Don’t use that kind of language.”

“You use-“

“Don’t do it.” He opened the pizza box and surveyed the contents. There’d be enough for dad when he got home tonight with an extra slice for each of them for breakfast in the morning before school.

His brother yawned loudly and curled deeper into the couch. “Shouldn’t dad be here by now?”

Marcus checked the clock for the twentieth time in ten minutes. Dad was two hours late. And he hadn’t called. He always called. Ever since Mom had bailed he always called.

Marcus got up and moved the remains of their dinner to the kitchen and began to tidy up. The tv had switched from a sitcom to local news.

“Marcus?”

Marcus glanced out the kitchen window, curious about the police lights coming down the street.

“Marcus?!”

The car stopped in front of his house, the lights still turning. A local news van pulled right behind them.

“Marcus! Come to the tv! Something’s wrong-“

Marcus snapped out of the fog and ran into the living room. His brother’s eyes were wide on the tv. He looked and saw the precinct where his dad worked, the front smashed in where a car had driven through it.

That’s where the front desk officer sat. Police tape crossed the scene. A picture of the suspect was in the corner of the screen.

The doorbell rang.

Dad had been covering for someone tonight. Last minute. Front desk.

The doorbell rang again.

There was a car driven through the front of the police department.

Marcus opened the door to see two familiar policemen. They looked haggard.

They looked like they had bad news.

“Dad?”

“Sergeant Wright – your father-“

And then his little brother started screaming.

\----------------------------

_The human brain is truly remarkable and adept at dealing with tragedy. I think one of the reasons people didn’t trust Marcus was due to this ability. We all have it. We can shut down like a machine. We can sort and compartmentalize thoughts and experiences if we try hard enough._

_Generally we call it a blessing._

_It’s a blessing that so-and-so can’t remember that awful tragedy. And while we may not remember, others do. And that shapes us. And the tragedy will form the foundation for all later decisions._

_One of the greatest tragedies in Marcus’ life happened when he was young. His father was killed by some crazy person. It was all over the news. But he moved on, locked his thoughts up tights, and buried his emotions except for what he needed to take care of his brother. One person was the whole of his family now. All others were obstacles to deal with._

_We’re all like that. Us and them. We’re just not so open and forthright about it like Marcus._   
_-excerpted from “Kate’s Journals vol. 1 chapter 18”_

 

“I don’t like him.”

“Okay.”

John frowned at his wife but tugged on his boots and set them by the bed. “Okay? You don’t agree.”

“I don’t know enough to make a judgement.”

“He’s a machine.”

“He’s a hybrid. A cyborg. A true one at that. He has a human heart. Human brain. I don’t understand why they would do that.” She sat down next to John on the makeshift bed and he wrapped his arms around her, one palm unerringly rubbing her belly and their unborn child. He said it helped him think.

‘To make a better terminator-“

“It’s not practical. It’s too much trouble.”

“To find us,” he said softer.

“Perhaps he really is just a man caught up in something bigger than himself. I can think of another such man.”

John continued to rub her belly but stopped abruptly at the sudden rumble that shook the base.

“Wright.”

 

\-----------------  
 _We all thought Marcus would die when he gave Connor his heart. But I don’t think anyone realized how affected Kate was by all that was happening._

_It was she who gave Marcus a third life._

_And it was Kate who saved his sanity and his soul._   
_-excerpted from the Kyle Reese Papers_

 

“What’s wrong?”

The little girl Star only grabbed Kate’s hand. Kate shrugged and cast a questioning look to John who then stood up and followed them closely into the hall, baby Sarah, cradled in one arm, his rifle slung over the opposite shoulder.

Star abruptly stopped and stared at John. She shook her head slowly, pointing to Sarah and John and then back at the room. “I – excuse me?” John asked in disbelief.

Star pointed again and shook her head even more emphatically. Kate bit her lower lip to keep from smiling. “I’m sure it’s nothing, John. Probably something with one of the women –“

“Are you bossing me young lady?” John continued in a stern voice.

Star’s expression clearly stated that not only was she telling him what to do but that she also didn’t have the time nor the inclination to debate and even a simpleton such as himself should be able to follow an easy order.

This time Kate turned away abruptly and coughed to cover her snort of laughter. No one spoke to John or looked at him in any way other than as their leader. He received looks of gratitude, worship, anger, disdain, grief, and respect but very rarely did anyone treat him like a regular person. Few deigned to joke let alone sass the man who was arguably the greatest leader of the Resistance.

“Fine. I was trying to figure out a way to ditch you so I could teach Sarah the proper way to hold a rifle.” John tossed off a salute to Star and a wink. She returned it with a regal nod.

Kate followed Star’s hurried progress and smiled at John’s words to Sarah about Star’s formidability and what a great commander she would make one day.

 

Star moved quicker through the warrens of the current base and Kate, realizing where they were headed, not only picked up speed but began to run. As they neared what looked to be a dead end of rubble from the collapsed corridor, Kate nimbly climbed and dodged the debris to reach the tiny alcove that was surprisingly clean and cozy. The voices which had been muffled cleared into low murmured hisses once she was at the entrance.

Kyle was standing in a belligerent pose, feet apart, arms crossed, a scowl etched across his young face. He was clearly angry with the large man seated on the makeshift bed who refused to look at him.

“Why won’t you talk to me?” Kyle implored.

Instead of answering him the man abruptly shifted his gaze to the doorway and Kate felt pinned in place. “Hello, Marcus,” she breathed softly.

Marcus uncoiled from the bed and crossed the space to tower over her. His eyes never wavered from hers as he murmured, “Get out.”

Kate squared her shoulders and opened her mouth to argue but Star ghosted out of the room, pulling an unwilling Kyle with her. As soon as the two had left his manner changed abruptly.

His shoulders slumped and his eyes took on a haunted cast momentarily before settling into the customary hostile glare. “I still hate you.”

Kate shrugged but entered fully into the room. “So you keep saying.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t say it today.”

“Thank goodness you can cross that off your list.”

Marcus tilted his head to the side, assessing her. “What the hell are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be – uh- resting?”

Kate gave him a wry smile and then settled onto one of the larger pieces of rock on the edge of the room. “I had a baby a month ago. I’m fine.”

Marcus paced for a few minutes and then abruptly stopped. “I say I hate you because you’re the one who gave me a third life. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t want it. I gave my life for Connor because…because maybe- maybe-then I could-“

Kate waited but when it looked like he wouldn’t continue she spoke softly. “Then you could…”

His manner changed abruptly. “I’d forgotten about it! Even after rescuing Kyle and Star I didn’t think about it because Connor was dying and so I gladly gave my life!” He suddenly collapsed and whispered, “I gave up my heart, why couldn’t you let me die?”

Kate slid from her perch to the floor next to Marcus. “I’m so sorry, Marcus.”

“In the factory. The terminator…it was the same one-drove a fucking car through the police station. Right over my...dad." The last word was said in a whisper, as if a man like Marcus wasn't allowed to have nice things like a father. “And now it was killing John and then it would get Kyle and- every goddamned day I see this! Do you understand Kate? Do you?!”

Kate reacted and hugged Marcus. She didn’t stop to think if it was safe or right. She hugged him as the only way to offer him any sort of solace she could think of. He resisted at first and then his body relaxed and his shoulders shook with silent tears. He hugged her tightly, careful of his strength and her weakened condition.

They sat together for a long time, neither saying a word.

 

_And so I stood outside that room, an interloper, eavesdropping on a private, painfully intimate conversation between my wife and the terminator that was supposed to be dead._

_Private because Kate was listening to the machine pour out his grief to her when he realized he no longer needed to hide behind his anger. She was patient and understanding. When she should have been filled with fury and hurt she gave him forgiveness and absolution. She treated him as a person._

_And I realized she knew what I had known all along. Marcus was…is a person._

_I heard him saying something about his father being killed but it didn’t register with me. Marcus is a person. Cameron was a person. How many others could be independent and growing, and willing to learn? To respect life? To want love?_

_I left as quietly as I had arrived only now I was torn between hope and grief._

_Marcus is a person._

_Cameron was a person._

_-excerpt "The Book of John Connor vol. 3 chapter 16_

\----------------------------  
 _What was it like? Seriously? Hearing Connor on the radio that first time…it was almost too much. That day was like Christmas. I mean, the way Christmas was back before J-Day. First we meet Marcus. And although he’s being a bit of a prick well, Star and I have got some good radar. We got a good feeling from him that this guy was safe. It was nice to have…uh…well, an adult around who wasn’t going to try and – you know. Hurt us._

_So then he goes and fixes the radio. Unbelievable._

_See, we’d heard rumors that there was this guy on the radio who was talking of fighting the machines. But to hear him, Connor, for ourselves was, I dunno, overwhelming. He sounded so confident, like he knew what to do. He gave us answers and information and then told us if we were listening then we were the Resistance. For once we felt like we had a purpose and a goal, you know?_

_So, things happen, bad stuff happens but eventually there came a day when we actually met John Connor. He was much younger than I’d imagined but…I believed. In later days I heard people whispering that he was a prophet. In later weeks I would see that many thought he was crazy._

_But me and Star…well, we’d just shake our heads and smile._

_Prophet, Messiah, Resistance Leader, whatever._

_John Connor was legit._

_Me and Star. We’d follow him til we died._

_-conversation between Kyle Reese and unknown group, overheard in Resistance headquarters mess, 6 months after Reese entered camp_

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Star made a few motions in their sign language and then rolled her eyes and smiled like she was lovesick.

Kyle flushed. “I do not have a crush on Blair. And ok, I can’t help but look at her. I mean, look at her. She’s pretty and –“

Star made a motion with her hands.

“Yes! And has a very nice set of – Star! I am not talking about this with you.”

“Talking about what?”

Kyle turned an even darker shade of red if possible at the sound of John Connor’s voice. “Uh, nothing sir. Just something silly.”

John stared at the teenager and tried to sync it with the image he had in his head of his father. This was the kid he would send back in time. How could someone remain so incredibly…young in a world like this?

But then again, John had been watching Kyle around the base and saw many of the qualities that Derek and his mother had spoken of. A quiet self assurance, a gentleness, trustworthiness, loyalty…

There was no one more loyal to him than Star. And Marcus.

“I wanted to know if you were interested in joining up with us; with the Resistance. If you choose to stay here we need to get you both assigned to duties, weapons and triage training, and assign you more permanent quarters.”

Kyle’s face lit up at the offer. He glanced at Star who also seemed to brighten although John would have sworn it was an almost maternal glow of happiness. That she was happy if Kyle was happy.

“Yes sir. We’d love to. And…and Marcus too, right? He’d be a Resistance fighter as well?”

“And Marcus too.”

Because John, of all people, knew there were worse things that a boy could have than a terminator bodyguard loyal to him body and soul.

\--------------------------

_The future sucked. I’d really hoped it would be all clean and slick like Star Trek but instead it was like every post-apocalyptic prepper’s wet dream. I thought it was a nightmare. Serena Kogan had told me I’d have a second chance to live again only I wasn’t planning on anything like this. I wasn’t planning on being alive at all._

_But this future sucked. And if she’d been here I would have told her. And demanded a refund._

_It was endless walking, destruction, and no people._

_Until Kyle. Kyle Reese._

_I would die for Kyle._

_I would kill again to protect Kyle. And Star._

_-excerpted from digital recording backup chip of Marcus Wright (recordings done at strong request of Kate Brewster Connor)_

 

“Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

Marcus didn’t glance up from the engine of the jeep he was working on. Kyle was lounging on the floor staring at Marcus and Star was slumped against Kyle’s shoulder napping.

“Stop watching me,” Marcus snapped.

“What else is there to look at?”

Marcus sighed and raked an oil covered hand through his hair. “Look kid, make yourself useful. Do you know anything- no of course you don’t. Get over here.”

Kyle’s eyes lit up and he carefully eased himself from under Star gently laying her head on his scarf as a pillow. He bounded up like a puppy dog to Marcus’ side and stared into the mysteries of the jeep’s engine.

“What are we looking at?” he asked happily.

As Marcus began to explain the parts of the engine and what he was repairing he realized he’d made a terrible error. It was bad enough that Kyle followed him around like a puppy. And the looks he generally gave Marcus were those of hero worship.

But standing this close to him he was aware that Kyle was maneuvering to bump into him occasionally and using that to stay close to him. And that when Kyle glanced up at him it was from under thick lowered lashes. The normally frigid motorpool felt unusually warm and…close.

And someone’s breath was coming in shortened gasps. Marcus was afraid it was his.

What. The. Fuck.

\------------------------------

_I loved her. I loved Sarah. How could anyone not love the mother of John Connor? And to be privy to her private words? Listening to her on those precious cassette tapes was almost…I don’t know, reverent? Her voice, the emotions, I used to imagine what she was doing, what she looked like when she took care of John. You had to be an amazing woman to raise a man like him._

_But then- well…_

_And it was then that I realized how many people actually raised John. It was Sarah, and his foster parents, the guerillas, the kids, the Terminators, and even Cameron. Not to mention Derek._

_And Marcus._

_I really believe it was Marcus, my Marcus, who shaped John’s decisions in later years. You can argue it was Cameron when he was 16 but with time travel it’s a chicken and egg thing._

_But it was Marcus who showed the most humanity. And I believe it was Marcus that scared Skynet. He was that bridge._

_He is the future._   
_-excerpt the “Kyle Reese Papers”_

 

“What’s he doing with you?”

“Who? Marcus?”

“No you little shit, Connor. What does he call you in his office for all the time?” Derek rolled over in his bunk and stared at his brother in the opposite bunk.

“No reason. Prepping me for some special mission.”

“Does this have anything to do with the picture I see you staring at all the time?”

Derek’s question was met with silence. Then there was a shifting noise of some blankets moving and suddenly a light switched on. Kyle was sitting on the edge of his bunk, bleary eyed, unshaven, and serious. He handed the picture to Derek.

Derek handled it gently and stared for a long moment. “She’s hot.”

“She’s Connor’s mother.”

“What the fuck?”

“You never heard that.”

“I know nothing.”

Kyle grinned. Derek handed back the picture and Kyle tucked it into his inner vest pocket.

“Well if there’s a girl involved you know I’m going with you,” Derek teased.

Kyle didn’t smile in return. He snapped off the light returning them to darkness.

“Absolutely, Derek. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

\---------------

_The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make ourselves. Well Mom, I certainly messed with that one. A lot. And so did Kate. God, I hope we’ve managed to thoroughly destroy all traces of the plans and materials used for the time travel machines. Star says not to worry. The machines were only meant to work to a certain end. That no matter what we did, how many we sent back, the ultimate destiny was a righteous one. A good one. The best possible one for humanity. I have to say I like Star’s interpretation._

_-excerpted from ‘The Book of John Connor” vol. 4. chapter 3_

“Go.”

“No. Listen Connor. John. Listen. I’ve accepted it-“

“Well I haven’t. Go save him. Be happy.”

John shoved Marcus through the time portal.

\--------------------------------

_Marcus was disturbing in so many ways. And in the end it didn’t matter. All those fears were laid to rest when he sacrificed himself…for me. And at times I can’t even say it was the right thing to do. –excerpt “The Book of John Connor – vol.3-chapter 14_

 

And so two hundred years after Judgement Day, 180 years after the end of the war, the world I live in is so completely different because of the lives and sacrifices of these people. Humanity has not only survived but we have come back and flourished. We are wiser and more humble. We have learned.

It is widely believed now that the horrors endured during the Judgement and subsequent hunts and the 20 year war actually compelled humanity to better itself in a shorter time than it would have if things had progressed smoothly for 200 years.

But as these journals and excerpts show, it is the work of these particular heroes who are credited with what our world now takes for granted. Artificial Intelligence, hybrids, these are all still people. And while they can even create art, they have not replaced us.

We live in a world were humans and AIs coexist peacefully and with equal rights.

Because on that day that John Connor realized who Marcus was, he could no longer save only humanity.

And so it was that John Connor really did save us all.

With the help of some friends.

-excerpted from school report about John Connor, Founding Father, by Katie Reese-Wright (IV)


End file.
